Phoenix Homes for Sale vs Vancouver

Today my guest Craig Verone with Remax over in Vancouver. We’re going to have a chat with you guys about this topic being Phoenix homes for sale, Vancouver homes for sale. I personally just wanted to say thanks to all you Canadians. We love you guys because for one thing, you bailed us out.

We should have a parade for you every year in Arizona because without the Canadian money that flowed into this place in 2007 through 2012. I don’t know if we would have made it up. And I am totally serious about this. The Canadians saved Arizona, so we should have a, a Canadian day or a Canadian week or something to honor you guys. So Craig, thanks for being with me today.

Maybe you and I could start the Canada, Arizona, you know, celebration day. It might just be the two of us to begin with. We’ll make sure to get more people on board.

I’m sure we can get some air time with that. One of the things I wanted to do is just kind of highlight both of our cities, metropolitan and just give people a feel for what it’s like to live in both places. Haven’t had the privilege of being there yet, but it’s one of those places that, you know, out of all the places that a person could go, it’s one of those places that’s on my bucket list.

When most people think of Vancouver, they think of that downtown Vancouver. As you said earlier, it is one of the most photographed parts of our city because it’s absolutely gorgeous. It’s surrounded by water and mountains to the North, we’ve got Stanley park, it’s world famous sea wall there. So it’s incredibly beautiful. An incredibly walkable well cities.

The thing about Vancouver is for a large city, we’re quite a small city geographically. I think people from other cities that are used to these massive cities where you have to drive to kind of get across. You can walk from one end of downtown Vancouver to the other in about half an hour to 45 minutes depending on your speed.

So it’s a very walkable city. Every amenity you could think of is there. You’ve got tons of high rise and low rise buildings for condo living. So we are one of the most densely populated cities in North America. Then just across the bridge from downtown, you’ve got the North shore.

So you’ve got North Vancouver and West Vancouver. Between those three cities alone, you’ve got so many incredible housing options for couples and families. Then there are many other cities surrounding those in the Metro Vancouver area. So there really is something for everyone, every budget and every lifestyle here in Vancouver which is lovely.

Cost of Living in Vancouver

Well, I would think that Vancouver is one of those cities where demographic is higher income. I would think that you probably have a good number of second homeowners. Having a place to live is an achievement. Is a luxury vacation home a good idea?

There are people who live in Vancouver part of the year and maybe in another place either in the US or in Canada another part of the year. But it’s such a beautiful city that I’m sure that it takes a significant income to afford a property there.

So I bet that a lot of them are what you would qualify as luxury properties, whether they be in a high rise or a single family residence people from other parts of the world. Particularly if like from your area where I think the average price of a detached home is significantly lower than ours would consider. Sort of luxury properties but in actuality they’re not. They’re not really luxury properties of. Show me $1 million detach home here in Vancouver. I think most people in your part of the world would be quite shocked at what you can get for $1 million here.

Land Value in Vancouver

It’s just the cost of of living here is high. The cost of land, the land value is very, very high. Yes, real estate prices are high because you have people from all over the world wanting to live here. The bank of arena has been sought after just much like Toronto in Canada. Where are the two main cities in Canada where people choose to live.

I had the pleasure of traveling to Sydney Australia a few years ago and that’s an interesting place to see. I bet Vancouver has a similarity and that it’s probably a magnet for people from all over the world. As you had alluded to I bet your population is not strictly Canadian. It’s probably a lot of people from different parts of the world.

Huge mix. Yeah, absolutely. Which a huge diversity in Vancouver, which I think is fantastic. Diversity makes not just any city but any country stronger. So you know, Vancouver has a good amount of diversity in it. I bet that shows up in a lot of the things to do. A lot of the restaurants, you probably have a great mix of gourmet options over there and your city firm with flavors from around the globe.

Be in Heaven with The Food Options

If you’ve said you’ve never been to our city. If you come here, you’ll be in heaven with the food options here in Vancouver. I haven’t traveled a ton around the world, but I have traveled a fair, and I’m always surprised at how spoiled we are here in Vancouver. We have world-class restaurants of every ethnicity. So it doesn’t matter what kind of food or ethnicity of food you’re looking for. You can find some of the best here in Vancouver. We’ve been talking about Vancouver for a while now, but I’d love to hear more about Phoenix and the lifestyle there.

I’m glad you asked and I feel like I’m misleading you a little bit. You can see the fire behind me, right? Absolutely. Well, it’s not very often that you need a fire. We certainly don’t need one. I’m sitting by the fire in a pair of shorts. So that’s Arizona living in Phoenix is really a pleasure.

It’s a city that’s grown up a lot. The last 15 years used to be like that, our downtown area was really not much going on. But that’s all changed a lot in the last 15 years are downtown Phoenix has a ton of activity and it’s a place where people go and spend time to be entertained and spend time to live there.

Our metropolitan is vast. There are roughly 30 cities and towns in the greater Phoenix metropolitan. It’s a hundred miles from one end to the other.

The Median Price

So there’s lots of housing options and it’s a place that is extremely affordable in US dollars. The median price is right around  270. There are many neighborhoods that are significantly more and a little. Some even a little bit less than that. This neighborhood that I live in, the median price is going to be closer to five or $600,000, and that’ll get you a nice place.

If you are able to spend up to a million, you can have an especially nice place and just a little over a million. You can be looking at luxury property in this area. So property is really affordable. The weather, you guys have heard all about it’s crazy in the summer but it’s not. It’s not too bad. I actually get to swim a lot in the summer, so I like that.

But for about six to seven months, we love the weather here and it allows us to do a lot of outdoor living. So, we can go hiking in a shorts and a tee shirt in January. That’s really nice. Canadian people that I’ve sold homes to, they come here for that. They want to get out of the park for a little bit. They may not necessarily spend their entire winter here. Some do, but some just come here to get a break from the cold and then go back to. Enjoying their life and in their Canadian city. But Phoenix has a lot to do in terms of entertainment.

Talking of Professional Sports in Phoenix?

We have a professional sports, the Phoenix suns, we even have a hockey team here. I was getting made fun of when I talked to you. Canadian guys. When I say hockey, I’m not saying it right. We have our hockey team that’s doing quite well. A professional basketball and baseball team. We have a college sports, so we really enjoy our sports here and just the outdoor living lifestyle here in Arizona that allows us to be outside year-round. I even do 60 to 80% of my cooking outside all year round. So that gives you a quick idea of what it’s like to live in Phoenix.

About the Weather

Well, you were saying that so many Canadians like Phoenix for the weather. I think the reason so many Vancouverites in particular like going down there or purchasing a second home down there. For it emulates the lifestyle they already have here through the summer time.

So we are an incredibly beautiful city in the summer. Lots of outdoor activities I can grill on my barbecue year round because I’ve got a cow covered balcony. But I think Vancouverites in particular love heading down to Arizona and Phoenix.

Through the winter time they get to enjoy the same kind of lifestyle and weather that they’re to here. In fact, I mean it’s much warmer for most of the year down there than we do get up here in Vancouver.

You know, I like to golf a good bit and I go a couple times a month. Sometimes there’s one guy in particular I golf with quite a bit and when he and I go, I would say 70% of the time when we get hooked up with. Some other people who we don’t know, they’re Canadian guys.

Be Keen on How Much Time You Spend

So the Canadians absolutely love this place. One of the things I wanted to point out is, if you’re going to be living in both places, you have to do it right. Arizona or anything in the US could be a safe Haven to your assets. If you’re a Canadian guy or gal. If you do it wrong, you can get clobbered on the taxes. You really have to be keen on how much time you spend here.

You can spend a great amount of time but you’ve got to do it right. If you don’t, then both governments will be happy to punish you dearly. If you happen to have citizenship in both place, you still have to do things properly. I’ve got a connections here in Arizona. There’s one guy, Bob Keats who has a book all about this and he renews it every year.

Bob is a financial planner who is certified in Canada and in the US so if you’re a Canadian person who’s thinking about living in both places. Just make sure to talk with somebody who you trust, who can make sure that when you take title in either place. That you’re doing it in a way that is going to be beneficial rather than detrimental to your tax situation.

You were talking about the median cost of a home down there. Unfortunately, we can’t compete with the prices. We can’t compete with the prices. Just to give you an idea, the average price of a condo, so we’re now talking to detach house. We’re talking to a condo or townhouse in downtown Vancouver, as of last month, it was about $759,000.

You’re right, you can’t compete with us on price. We don’t have an ocean outside of our doors either. You guys live in a beautiful place and that’s how it is here in the US too. If you live on the ocean, especially California, in certain parts of Oregon and Washington. That property is just going to command more dollars. That’s just how it’s always been. It’s never going to change. So if you want to live in a place like that, you’re going to have to have the income to handle it.

Typically a lot of the jobs will pay more in those areas so they don’t have any trouble finding people to buy houses in California or in Vancouver. I mean, in terms of like a hundred miles is a huge area to cover. Let’s talk about some options for housing around your city center if you don’t want to be right downtown.

Options Quite Close to The Downtown Core

Here at Phoenix, one of my favorites, which is the Arizona Biltmore area. So that area is around the Arizona Biltmore hotel. I live close to it. I’m in the Arizona Biltmore area myself and there’s roughly 30 communities inside the proper. Most of them are gated. Many of them are guarded. You look on a crime map on Google, you’ll see that the Arizona Biltmore areas.

Almost one of the safest areas of town and lowest crime rate. It’s great for second homeowners also because of those two attributes, it’s truly all that stuff in the Biltmore. It’s totally lock and leave. If you’re a year round resident, it works great. But if you’re somebody who’s coming and going and you want to leave your stuff not impervious to. All crime it’s certainly sees a lot less of it than a lot of places.

So Arizona billboard is great. There’s a ton of restaurants around here. The North border, we have to a peak, also known as Squaw peak. Which just a little mountain range area where you can go hiking and there’s fabulous views for up there.

What Do Lots of People Get Used Everyday?

Those trails get used every day by lots of people. So a lot of friends go out there. When I go out there myself, I’ll see people who’ve been going there for years every day. Some people are who are into fitness, are running those trails. Some people on some of the ones that they’re allowed to they’re biking.

So that’s really one nice thing is you can get your exercise done outdoor outside in that area. The Arizona Biltmore circle is an area where all the biggest state homes are. Where there’s homes between five and 12,000 square feet. Their matching and they’re priced like it and they’re just a great option for somebody who has all the money in the world to live in Arizona.

It’s one of the popular options for people looking for luxury property. There’s some luxury town homes in there that are priced anywhere from the six up into the millions depending on what you’re looking for. Lots of residents participate in memberships at the hotel so they can belong to the spa, have golf membership. There’s two 18 hole golf courses on the premise. People like that it’s less than 15 minute drive to sky Harbor airport international airport.

Downtown Phoenix is less than a 15 minute drive. If you didn’t want to do any driving while you’re here, you certainly wouldn’t have to. You could leave your car parked and walk to everything that you would need if you had a property inside the Arizona Biltmore. Which is a little odd for a Phoenix, we are known as being a commuter city. The cities that were developed like Chicago, New York. Those kinds of places, they’re more of a walkers, a pedestrian friendly place.

A Walkable Place in Phoenix

This place is very spread out but the Biltmore is an exception to that. I think out of all the major cities in the US I think Phoenix has the best freeway systems in the entire country. It’s not congested, well-thought-out, and there’s a lot of it. So you can get around from one end of our Metro to the other quick. So I love living in this place and I have a hard time imagining not living in the Biltmore area. While that’s true, there’s still lots of other great choices but is one of the best areas in the entire Valley.

Sounds very much like our North door where you have North and West Vancouver. I live in North. I absolutely love it. I’ve lived here for about 13 years now. Prior to that I was almost 20 years in the West end downtown Vancouver. The thing I love about North Vancouver is that it offers couples and families so much in terms of housing schools and amenities.

You know, much like you were saying, people who like to go hiking and be on trails. Well that’s all the North shore is all about incredible trail system. For hiking and biking. We can’t compete in terms of areas of price. The average cost of a condo in North van, is about $691,000. So it’s about a 60-$70,000 less than downtown Vancouver just for coming across the bridge.

People who have $600,000, it probably can pay 800 if they want it to. That’s what it comes down to is where do you want to live? What kind of lifestyle do you want to lead? It’s the same, you know someone we’re heading down to your area.

I really want to thank you for, for inviting me to join in this conversation about, you know, our, our two cities, what they have to offer. I love the fact that you appreciate Canadians so much down there because we love your city. Like I said, Craig, we should be having a parade for you people every year. Well, I think that’s fantastic.

I think it speaks to the quality of life and the things that Phoenix has to offer. You know, people don’t, most Canadians aren’t going to go down there and buy a home and a great place to be if it’s. If it’s not offering us the kind of lifestyle we want to lead down there in a second home.

So I really want to thank you for inviting me to join. This conversation with you talk about our two cities. Uh, there, there’s lots of similarities, lots of differences obviously as well. We live a much harder lifestyle here in terms of price, you know, for the co for the real estate we have here. But as you were mentioning for Canadians and Vancouver race in particular looking for great options for a second home. Phoenix, Scottsdale would be great places to consider and obviously if you’re going to consider them, John Cunningham would be the agent to reach out to. I appreciate you saying.

Video Link up About Condos in Old Town Scottsdale

One thing I wanted to point out to everybody is I’ve got another video link up above about condos in old town Scottsdale. So you might want to check that out. I just want to let all of our viewers, watching anybody who is living in Canada, who’s considering Arizona as a second home. Know that when you buy a home with me, I shovel the snow that falls on your Arizona driveway for your entire life that you hear no questions asked. I’ll be there every time it snows.

I just wanted to thank everybody for stopping by and listening and I wanted to let you know that if you’re considering a purchase in Vancouver, my friend Craig is going to be very helpful to you. And one of the benefits of this connection that Craig and I have is that anybody who is currently a resident in Canada who wants to buy here, you know, we can, we can get together Craig and I can help you streamline that process.

Want to Buy a House in Vancouver?

If anybody is in Arizona wanting to buy in Vancouver, same thing, we can help with that process. As I mentioned earlier, we just want to make sure that you do it right and then you end up with the best property or the best result from your sale. If you’re thinking about selling something, one thing I did want to let you know is I’ve got a link to Craig’s channel in the description below, and if you’re thinking about buying or selling in either place, that channel that Craig records on it is going to be a great asset to you. He’s very consistent. He’s on there every week and he’s got a ton of great videos for you.

So make sure to check that out and then drop us a comment below if you have any thoughts or ideas about what we’ve had to say today or any questions. We love it. We absolutely love it when people are commenting on our videos and we’re quick to reply. So, Hey Craig, thank you for being here today. I appreciate your time. My pleasure, John. Thanks for having me.